Editor\'s Essays Articles

Turns out that on June 4, the formerly puzzled voters of Compton will be presented with far clearer options in the mayoral runoff than they had suspected.

What makes unfiltered journalists such as Betty Pleasant so dangerous is that her routine racial hate-mongering has a deleterious effect on her readers. Because of their busy lives, they don’t have time to investigate the truth for themselves. They swallow whole her fiery, but knowingly false, messages. Ranters, lightly educated amateur demagogues, such as the unsophisticated Ms. Pleasant, count on readers not bothering to verify.

Memo to City Councils everywhere: Before an intrusive Plastic Bag Ban is enacted, an Old Bag Ban ought to be approved. Hopefully, that would mute the mindless, brawling, race-splattering hatefulness of Old Bags such as the poorly named Betty Pleasant. As an unreconstructed racist and sexist – with a loyal following at wavenewspapers.com – Betty Unpleasant muddies the reputation of respectable liberals.

With all the cheerfulness of an ex-wife volubly petitioning for an increase in her unemployment (alimony) check, The Dreaded Plastic Bag Ban arises from the murky depths of Ballona Creek next Monday evening to bite our august City Council members – but we won’t say where. A pity that it probably is too late in the spring for Culver City to change its name to San Clemente.

The typically inattentive Los Angeles Titanic is so maniacally in the thrall of the gay boys and girls who set the Titanic’s obsessive editorial policy that they have failed to remotely report on the way downtown’s politicians with the loudest mouths arrogantly are deceiving the black residents of South Los Angeles about their intentions for the light rail line.

In the spirit of the times, I expect Wendy Greuel to announce, any edition now, she is a lesbian. My gosh. The possibilities are intriguingly endless. Imagine all the mayoralty votes she instantly would pick up for May 21 from naive people on the loopy left. For a year, they have feared she was straight just because she talks funny.

If “One Billion Rising” is a legitimate enterprise that seeks to tamp down violence against women – it is far from clear whether it is valid or just a gaggle of girls out for a publicity joyride in a jalopy – its shaky delegate at Wednesday night’s Culver City Democratic Club meeting did it a disservice.

When Mark Ridley-Thomas was running for County Supervisor 4½ years ago, some voters, not accidentally, thought of him as God. Like many office-seekers, he was ubiquitous. He would appear on three Culver City street corners, simultaneously, attired in three different business suits. Must have deliberately pasted stale gum onto the soles of his shoes so they would stick to the pavement. He never left here. He spent more time in Culver City than the late Albert Vera.

Too bad that whacky Wendy Greuel and slippery Eric Garcetti both can’t lose their May 21 runoff to become – normal people help us – the next mayor of Los Angeles. That is like judging a mother-in-law contest. Do I have to select one? What if the city ran on automatic for four years?

Except for the two mayoralty finalists, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas this afternoon remains the most consistently disappointing politician in Los Angeles. The saddest dimension of that judgment of a wonderfully likable man, is that he also may be the smartest politician in town.